Book One  Kanto
by BrendanoHarns
Summary: I have included the forward to this story as the first chapter. Oops. And I spelt it wrong. I think. Oops. I'm over it. :D
1. Forward

FOREWARD:

Why, hello there.

I've just been introduced to recently, and I decided I would post a fan fiction here that has gotten little to no attention on my Deviant Art account.

Which can be found here. .com/ [/SHAMELESSPLUGFTW]

Anyways.

The main characters are named after the third generation protagonists, and have nothing to do with anything else…even the fact that I share a name with one of them. Nope, no influence on the name decision whatsoever.

The characters are also based off of these third generation characters as well, and the entire story is influenced by Pokemon Adventures.


	2. Chapter 1

Knelt down on the soft ground, the air escaped from my lungs in a desperate and hopeless plea for help, though I knew the situation was beyond mending. He was gone. He wasn't just dead, but he had disappeared. My best friend had left me in a way worse than death. Everyone had. Why couldn't I just die, too?

Four years ago my parents had taken me to a beach just South of Fuchsia city. Both my parents had been sunbathing for hours, leaving me to enjoy myself in as many ways as my eight-year-old mind could think of. I rested on the shoreline under the comfort of a Bulbasaur-teal and white umbrella. It was old and faded, but it provided plenty of shade, reaching across the sand just above my head to just below my knees, which were submerged through the sand and into the water. The ocean was beautiful. I wondered about how many creatures lied beneath its calming surface as I slowly consumed my watermelon from a plastic tub beside me. As the waves slid up, around, and over my legs and feet, burying them further in wet, warm sand, I leaned back and rested my head on the beach's soft, grainy cushion.

Just as my eyelids slipped closed in relaxation, I noticed I was laying on something smooth and hard. Before I had time to think about what it might be, something began pinching at my side. Rolling over, I opened my eyes to a red face of a Krabby, wearing a strange expression, staring right back at me, hardly a few inches away. I lurched back, instantaneously. It stood and stared at me for a minute or so before digging around in the sand where I had been laying before. I noticed a shell in the patch of sand the Krabby was excavating in.

He was intensely focused on digging, until I reached over to help. He became anxious, and scurried a few steps backward. I had never heard of Krabby being able to move very fast backwards, so I was just as surprised as my new friend. Once I leaned back, it hesitated, but Krabby slowly began digging again. This time, it kept a careful watch on me, making sure I didn't move. I tried to help once or twice more, but the same process repeated itself until I gave up. Eventually it began to trust me more, only looking up every so often, and soon not at all. I enjoyed watching it dig, as I had never seen a Pokemon this close before. There was something different about this Krabby than ones I had seen pictures of, though. This Krabby was a bright cherry red color, where as most were an orange-red. I had heard that some Pokemon were different colors than they usually were. I had heard tales of blue slowpokes and pink Dratinis, but never of a Krabby such as this.

I kept watching, until it finally had accomplished what it had set out to do. Once the Krabby had successfully unearthed the shell, it did something unexpected. It began to eat the shell. It moaned a bit here and there while doing so, and made faces that I read as unpleasant. I remembered the container of sliced watermelon I had brought with me, and reached around slowly to grab a piece. I held it out to the Krabby, who just stared at it as if I were holding out a rock. I brought it up to my mouth, took a bite, and smiled. Then, I re-offered the watermelon to the Krabby. It continued to stare at me, paying no mind to my offer. After a while of waiting, it leaned forward and began nibbling on the end. It slowly realized the taste, and began to nibble a bit more assertively, though not enough to be aggressive.

Once it had finished the watermelon, I noticed that it had no idea where the the fruit stopped and where my fingers started. It bit down on them, and hard. I moved my fingers around, and luckily none were broken. Krabby had jumped back a bit when I cried out in pain. My parents seemed to take notice, too.

"Brendan! Are you okay?" My mother came running to my aid. Krabby looked up at me, motionless. I tossed it another slab of fruit.

"Just get out of here," I said. "You can keep it." It didn't, though. The Krabby just left, gradually vanishing into the sea.

"Are you okay?" my mother interrogated me upon her arrival.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just dropped a piece of watermelon."

"Oh," she seemed rather confused. "Well okay. Be careful with that. It isn't cheap." That's another thing: my family is very...thrifty. I guess we kind of half to be; we don't have that much money. Although, I've never heard of anyone rich living in Lavender Town, but you know your life's not going to end up luxurious when your mother is unemployed and your father's only job is making tips off of helping people come up with nicknames for their Pokemon.

When the sun began to set, we watched in awe as the beautiful orb sleepily drifted below the horizon. Afterwards, we began to pack up our things, and set up our tent for the night. We didn't want to risk being attacked while walking back home in the dark, so we decided it would be much better to leave in the morning. That night we roasted marshmallows, ate s'mores, and hit the sack. We were all pretty tired.

The next morning, I woke up the earliest. I wanted to sit and watch the sunrise, and get one last glimpse at the beautiful ocean before we headed out for Lavender. When I undid the zipper after much effort to do so without breaking our cheap tent, I noticed something off to the side of the tent. It was a pile. A pile of shells.

Off in the distance, the same Krabby from earlier was collecting shells. It's cherry-red face shined in the sunlight. I sat out on the sand watching it, until it realized I was watching. It brought what shells it had collected in its claws to me, and raked the pile beside our tent over to me as well. The Krabby was trying to apologize, but for what? Biting me earlier?

I motioned for the Krabby to come sit next to me. He instantly did, and we sat there, watching the sunrise together. The Krabby began to relax, and so did I.

"Seems like you've got yourself a friend, there." My dad's voice came from behind me. I reacted by sitting up, and Krabby by jumping on my lap and burying his head in my chest. "He's a nervous little fella."

"He's usually pretty relaxed," I answered. My dad nodded and stood in place for a second, before pacing. Then he stopped.

"Is that a pile of shells?" he noticed.

"Yeah."

"You get those?" he asked.

"No, Pinchers here got them."

"It's a sign of affection from a water Pokemon, especially one living near the ocean, sometimes it's all the nutrition they can find." I sat there for a moment. Krabby looked up at me, with a smile on his face. I smiled back.

"Hmph, never knew that."

"I can tell you two are getting along very well, and this was going to wait until we got home, but would you like to learn how to catch Pokemon?" I looked at my dad, suprised. He held out a Pokeball in his had, not that we could afford one.

"Awesome! Where'd you get that?"

"It's what happens when there's a screw-up on a shipment of Pokeballs, and they have to sell them wholesale to be able to pay their bills." I laughed.

"What do you think?" I looked back down at Krabby, still content on my lap. He continued to look up at me, and smile. "I think that's a yes," I turned back to my dad.

"Alright. Just press that button in the middle, and then get Krabby to touch it." He handed the ball to me. I sat Krabby down in the sand, and pressed the button on the ball. It expanded, and then I set it down on the sand as well."

"I want you to choose. We're heading back to Lavender Town; do you want to go with us?" Krabby looked at me, and then the ball. Then me, then the ball. He extended his reach to touch the correct circle. The ball opened up, and he was sucked inside. "Krabby!"

"No, it's okay son. That's what supposed to happen. Now watch. The button in the middle will glow red once he's in their, nice and comfortable. Then you just have to press it again, throw it, and he'll come out again!"

"Won't he be free again, though?"

"Yes, but you can call him back by holding the ball tight, and calling the voice command 'return'." I waited a few seconds and threw the ball again. Krabby came out. He seemed especially happy.

"That's strange."

"What?" I asked.

"I've heard of this, but have never seen it."

"What, what is it?"

"Any Pokemon who has an extreme care for their owner will appear to glow a bright red."

"Really? Since when? I've never heard of that."

"Well, it's supposedly just a myth, or a legend, but maybe..." He paused. Then a realized it was more than a pause in thought, it was a stop. He didn't know what was going on with Krabby, only what I had told him, and what he had seen.

"Congrats on your first catch, buddy." He walked off, puzzling about something. I was just happy I had made a new friend. Krabby seemed happy, too.


	3. Chapter 2

A hand on my shoulder. A wet tongue across my face. His eyes could freeze flames in dead ice. He was close, though I couldn't hear a heartbeat. It didn't have one. It was dead, and so was I.

I sat upright, gasping for air. I awoke in a cold sweat that made me shiver and twitch. Why did I keep having this dream? Ever since I had caught Krabby two years before, I couldn't stop it from looping in my head every night. I tried not to think about it too often, but it was starting to get to me.

Looking out at the bright moon, whose beams filtered through the blinds of the window, I began to get thirsty. Finally, stepping over Krabby who was sound asleep aside my bed, I decided to get a glass of water from the kitchen. Even with no synthetic light I could see perfectly by opening the blinds; the moon was strong tonight. It always was. Here.

After opening the blinds, I gazed out the window into the abyss of purple surrounding our house; the whole town for that matter. No one knew why, but lavender grows like grass in here. Legend says a royal king lived in this town many years ago, because he loved the smell of the lavender plant. Due to the infamy of the legend, Lavender Town has been nicknamed "The royal purple town."

I went over to the faucet and poured myself some water. It didn't seem cold enough, so when I went back to get some more, I added ice. After I threw some ice in the glass, I strolled over to the sink to begin the process of refilling my glass, when something strange happened. The whole room went pitch black. It only happened for an instant, but it happened nonetheless. I knew this only could have only occurred if something were to block the moonlight by standing in front of the window.

Looking back at the window, I saw nothing there. I decided to shrug it off as being tired, drink my water and go back to bed. Then, I noticed something. Something red, something faded. Not bright, but still glowing. Eyes, almost. They were peering in through the window. When I went over and I got eye-level with them, I realized that only the edges of the red "eyes" were showing through the glass…on the glass. The light was coming from behind me.

I slowly rotated my stiff self, the floor creaking as I turned my feet. Nothing unusual behind me. I spun around again to try to figure out where the red was coming from, but it was gone.

It was weird, but I didn't think much of it. After shaking it off, I drank my water and returned to bed.


	4. Chapter 3

Things were unusually quiet the next morning. Something was wrong.

"They just…found her like that?" I heard mom's voice.

"Yes. " Dad's voice. I paused halfway down the steps to listen.

"How did it happen?"

"Nobody knows for sure, but there were reports of something running around the village last night."

"Some…thing?"

"Yeah. Whatever it was, apparently it moved fast enough that it looked like a dark cloud with red eyes when it moved. People who saw it said it didn't have any feet, or legs for that matter. Or arms. Just a face and hands…floating."

Eyes, he said.

Red eyes.

"You don't think it was-?" I cut mom off in the middle of her sentence, surprising both my parents, as they had not heard me come down the stairs.

"You don't think it was what?" I asked.

"Oh, your father and I were just talking about…a book, it was a good book really, and…" Mom was talking fast. She only did that when she was nervous.

"I saw it."

"What?" Mom asked.

"I saw it. Its eyes. Its red eyes. I saw it."

It was silent for a moment.

"A body like a cloud? Floating hands? Doesn't that sound like a…Haunter?"

Silence, still.

"Ghost Pokemon are affected by water type moves. Maybe if I can just train Krabby, like Ms. Fuji teaches us in school, and she can just teach me some more…I can take care of it!"

I took a long breath. By their faces, it looked like my parents needed one too.

"I'm afraid you can't do that." Mom said sternly. I was dumbfounded, and lost my train of thought for a moment.

"What do you mean? If there's a ghost going around keeping people up at night, why can't I just train with Krabby, and-"

"No. Son. It's too dangerous." My father seemed upset.

"It's no different than the Pidgeys and the Ratattas Ms. Fuji has Krabby and I train against, just different moves, and different strengths and weaknesses…" It felt like my argument was going to be to no avail even before I had started.

"Son," Father turned and spoke in a low, almost whispered voice. "This…thing."

There was a long pause.

"It's killing people."

"Oh…" I sighed, somewhat disturbed. I didn't know Pokemon could…kill.

"Now go get dressed. Your mother is making Breakfast."

"Okay." I started up the stairs.

"Oh, and stay inside today. Make sure you're always where we can see you. This ghost…might serve to be more of a problem than can be handled. Your mother and I are discussing moving before word of this gets out, so we can still make some profit off the house." I was rather sad, but then thought of the beach where we had once stayed, and in hoping we may move there, I was content for a moment. But then something else bothered me.

"Wait…" I stopped halfway up the steps. If I have to stay inside, how am I going to go to school?"

"You aren't going to school today."

"Why not? It's literally right behind our house, and as long as you walk me over, it should be fine, right?"

"You're not going anywhere until everything's been sorted out."

"But Dad, Ms. Fuji is expecting Krabby and I there today."

"Brendan?" Mom finally said something after being quiet so long.

"Yeah?"

"How much of our conversation did you here?"

"Enough, why?"

Dad turned to me.

"Ms. Fuji is dead, son."


	5. Chapter 4

Dead? Dead. But…dead? Dead. Dead. Gone. Dead. Killed. Murdered. Slaughtered. Killed.

Dead.

I sat in my room, trying to let the fact sink in that my teacher, my neighbor…she was dead.

Dead.

It slowly began to connect.

Dead.

I tried to push it away.

Murdered.

I tried to push it out as best I could.

Slaughtered like an innocent lamb. Dead.

It finally sank in. After hours of sitting in the corner of my room, I finally wrapped my mind around the fact that she was gone. I closed my eyes as tight as I could, but the carpet beneath me was still soaked from the overwhelming shock that ran from my eyes. I still had to see her one last time.

Krabby had climbed on to my lap to comfort me.

"Stay here," I ordered. He climbed onto my bed, and sat down. I reassuringly petted the back of his head. He saw me off with a nervous smile.

I climbed out the window, and slid to the ground. My room was on the second floor, but the shingles extended so low that the landing didn't really hurt at all.

Or maybe it was because I was so hurt already.

I ran to the house, and looked in the window. There was a young child sitting over her body, most likely Ms. Fuji's sister who she had once talked about, weeping excessively.

In that moment, seeing that, I no longer felt pain. I no longer felt anguish. My tears stopped, because now, my eyes were open wide.

This could have happened to me, I thought.

This could have happened to mom. This could have happened to dad.

The void my sadness had left…was filling with fear.

Then, I got upset again. Then, frustrated. Soon I was furious, and with no direction or sense of reason. I went back to my house, remembering what Ms. Fuji had told me.

We had been doing training that morning. It was a one-on-one school day, as usual. Well, Krabby was there too.

"Now, Brendan, do you remember what moves are?"

"Yes, each Pokemon can remember four moves to use efficiently."

"Good. Now, what about levels?"

"A Pokemon grows in experience after every battle and levels up, even though most times the trainer doesn't know about it." She complimented me for remembering. Then, she taught me about TMs and Rare Candies.

"Brendan, what do you want to do most of all?" I was nine or ten. I didn't really know.

"I've never thought about it before."

"Do you want to take on the gyms some day?" I was excited and enthusiastic about the idea.

"Can I see that Rare Candy you found in the tall grass today?" I handed her the Rare Candy. She pulled out a box from her pocket, opened it, placed the rare candy inside, shut the box, and shoved it back in her pocket.

"Why can't I have it? I wanted to give it to Krabby."

"When you go off on your journey to face the gym leaders, it's not an easy one, or a decision you should take lightly. If you're going to take on the league, it will require everything you have. You won't have the advantages most kids have, so your Krabby will need to be as strong as he can be. But for now, he still needs to learn the basics of fighting." She pulled out two discs from her pocket. "Here are the TMs Dig and Rain Dance. He should train using these moves." I was beyond happy, and Krabby learned them right away.

When we came back from training in the field, I watched her bury the box behind her house. She didn't know that I knew where she kept it, and I hoped that she hadn't moved it.

I snuck back in my house, and made my way to my room. Krabby was asleep on the bed.

"Pinch," I called. Krabby responded to his nickname. "Let's go." He jumped up on my shoulder, and we slid down the roof. When we got to the back of the house, I pointed to the ground.

"Here. Dig here." Pinch was confused, but he dug. After a minute or so, he reached the box. I reached in the hole, and grabbed it. When I opened the box, I found the Rare Candies. The sun was still overhead; it was about eleven in the morning. I snapped the box shut, and stowed it away.

"Let's go home and fill up on food," I told Krabby. "Then, we sleep until night." Pinch nodded his head, even though he had no idea what was going on.

So we went home, we ate, we rested. There was no time to train; the Rare Candies were going to be necessary for what we had to do.

Now it's going to be dead. Now it's going to die. Now it's going to be murdered. Now it's going to be slaughtered.

I had to get it, before it got us.


End file.
